The Matrix 0o
by Tavoriel
Summary: This story isn't about Neo, Trinity, or any of the characters, it's an exploration of a cool concept and takes place in the Matrix universe... sort of "fun with philosophy."


**The Matrix 0.o**

**A short little story that explores a random concept I thought up one day and found fascinating.**

Joe the Control Panel Guy watched the screen in amazement as the people of Zion battled the robot army. The scenarios had been getting more and more interesting up to this point, but this... this was epic. He kept on watching, even after his shift was over and he could go home.

"Joe? Joe, is that you? Where were you?" came the voice of Joe's wife as he opened the door.  
"It's me," Joe said. "There was something really interesting going on in the Virtual Reality world, so I stayed a little extra. What's for dinner?"  
"You mean what was for dinner," Joe's wife said. "There's meatloaf in the fridge, warm it up if you'd like."  
"Ok," Joe said, hanging up his coat. He then walked over to the far wall where the fridge was, opened it, got out the meatloaf, put some on a plate, and put it in the microwave.  
"You probably already know about this," Joe's wife said, "but they're saying on the news that the Virtual Reality world could be safe for new inhabitation again." She turned away from the TV and looked Joe in the eyes. "Honey... do you think we could go live there? I heard that it was really, really nice until the technology turned into a problem..."  
Joe took out his meatloaf and walked the short distance to the couch.  
"Dear," he said, "I know it would be nice to have more space...I know it's hard living in such a small house, I know it's hard having to eat whatever the government sends us, and I know it's hard to stand looking at all of the other little houses for scenery... but we can get by. I've worked at the Virtual Reality Station for a long time, and I don't trust that technology at all. You know, it was because the program they used to make reality wasn't complicated enough that the people were able to create such detailed artificial intelligence."  
"So?" said Joe's wife. "The situation's calm enough for the programmers to submit their revised code now without causing too much trouble. It may have been too easy for people to make killer robots once, but, once the new version is incorporated, that will be impossible."  
"Honey..." Joe said, "Maybe killer robots won't be possible, but something else will be. Reality is too complex for any computer program to imitate... and humans are too smart to let anything but reality hinder them from inventing things too powerful for them... and who knows, maybe we're not even safe in reality! Open spaces might be tempting, but I'd feel a lot safer here."  
"Joe, think about the kids."  
"I am thinking about the kids. Once you hook yourself up to the Virtual Reality program, there's no coming back. You're stuck for life because of how complicated all of the equipment is. I'm not dooming our children to that... think about what would happen if something else went wrong."  
"Joe, things go wrong in the real world all the time. And living here... it's not really living!"  
"I am not allowing this family to go into Virtual Reality until I am forced to by law, whenever that day inevitably comes," Joe said bitterly. "Look at the mess it was, and look how impossible it was to do anything about that mess because nobody had waited until the technology was good enough so it wasn't permanent before making it mainstream!"  
"And look out the window, Joe! What do you see? Another window! I can't live like this!"  
"I... I saw people dying," Joe said quietly. "The machines were killing them. If nobody had beat the machines, everyone in Zion could have died."  
"That's just the people in Zion," Joe's wife said.  
"Well, that's fair," Joe said angrily. "The other people weren't in any immediate danger, no, but they were still trapped as slaves by robots, and our computers were locked out of their minds, so they were completely cut off from us. Do you honestly want that?"  
"I...Joe, I don't know what I want," his wife sobbed. "I... I want the Earth not to be overpopulated anymore so nobody has to invent something that will let people live in little boxes stacked on top of each other!"  
"Shhh," Joe said gently, hugging his wife. "Everybody wants that."

*******

Robbie the Control Panel Guy looked boredly at the screen. Houses. Houses. Houses. Virtual Reality Buildings. Farms. Oceans. More houses... how boring.

The End


End file.
